Waiting for Teddy Williams is a baseball story that reads like a great modern myth. It involves a young protagonist and baseball phenomena Ethan Allen, a boy from northern Vermont, who lives, eats and sleeps baseball. Allen whose namesake was a leader-to-be of the 18th century Green Mountain Boys, fought against the New Yorkers for Vermont and for himself. The real Ethan Allen, proved to be an early "Yankee hater". Mosher is a fabulous writer and creative storyteller, producing images that are clear and mentally pleasing. Writers can often over use oddities in characters, introducing traits just to cause a stir within the reader. The characters Mosher writes are just quirky enough to be believable, interesting and loveable, remaining true to themselves and to the readers. In the novel, Allen is the son of Teddy Williams a baseball man, ex-convict and drifter, who appears unexpectedly into the life the young Allen. Williams, no relation to the famous Number 9, spends time with the boy, trains him and develops Ethan's baseball talents, the ones that Teddy himself could only use catching for a prison team in Texas. Mosher fills the book with memorable and outrageous scenes, lined with character-based humor. Allen's mother, Gypsy Lee works as an escort and a honky-tonk singer in order to put food on the table. Her work is introduced and presented as matter-of-fact, and often leads to hilarious images and situations. She is a strong, likeable character, the backbone of young Allen, and the novel flourishes in nearly every scene she is involved in. As strong myths go, things can be too good or too predictable to be true. Ethan's rise to the Red Sox and how the team uses him would never occur. Mosher's fictional Red Sox would never have won anything based on the season's scenario Mosher creates. This though is Mosher's point: the Red Sox will never ever win a championship. There is numerous mentions of 1918, Carlton Fisk, Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, and the Red Sox as the loveable losers that they are. It will take a miraculous improbability for a championship to come to the City of Boston. It is rather unfortunate for the book, released the same year the team actually did win the World Series. There are also a few minor factual inaccuracies found (i.e. World Series Game Seven would never be a day game), but generally these will be missed by most, except the scholars of the game. Despite this, the book is well written and interesting. It is a well-struck work that curves just foul. It is a one-run heartbreaking loss that can still be appreciated by the lovers of the game as well as the lovers of fine writing.
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Being the middle of baseball season (at least here in Vermont), I needed another fix after "Blockade Billy." Overall, "Waiting for Teddy Williams" is a very enjoyable baseball fantasy/fairy tale. The games and practice scenes in particular are well-written and mesmerizing. I particularly like how Mosher keeps you guessing and does not succumb to obviousness or inevitability (and that he implies that people from Boston are kinda assholes). That being said, I can't say the same about all the non-baseball aspects of this novel. In particular, I hate the mother; she is just a mish-mash of multiple stock characters, including the free spirit/wild child, poor-country-girl-who-is-actually-knowledgeable-and-smarter-than-everyone-else, and "hooker with a heart of gold." Even her name (Gypsy Lee)is trite given her characteristics. As such, I can't take her seriously and don't care about her. Also, I cannot suspend my disbelief when it comes to Mosher's portrayal of the Vermont legal and justice system - either he is woefully ignorant of how things work or has deceitfully disregarded reality and logic for the sake of his story. Regardless, the small town Vermont setting is very familiar and three-dimensional (and not just idealistically bucolic, as Vermont is often portrayed), and the tongue-in-cheek homage to the local population is refreshing as well. A good light (but not too light, as it has some things to say about family, heritage, hard work, and fortune) read for early summer.
—Charles
I thought that Waiting for Teddy Williams, by Howard Mosher was one of the best books i have ever read. It was very exciting and had a ton of plot twists. The book kept me guessing on every page. In my opinion, the author of this book really knew what he was doing.There were so many good parts in this book, but my favorite part was when E.A. and his dad push their neighbors tractor off a cliff into a river. They call their neighbor Devil Dan because he has always been giving them trouble and telling them that he is going to push down their house someday with his tractor.Even though this was a really good book, I still had some difficulties getting through the first part of the book. The beginning was kind of boring and I had to push myself to get through it. E.A. was just a little kid that loved baseball and nothing interesting really happened. Once I got past those beginning parts I was flying through the book and having fun doing it.Overall, this was a great book. I would recommend it to people that appreciate the sport of baseball as much and maybe even more than me.
—Michael K
